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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

?uestlove's Interview w/ Pitchfork..."Geniuses Have a Common Trait: They Sabatoge Their Shit?

Sitting in my cubicell doing what I do so well...nothing. WHile working overtime at nothing, I stumbled upon this ?uestlove interview at Pitchfork.com. What a dope interview. Now, yall know I am NOT a fan of Pitchfork because of their horrible album reviews, but this interview really dove deep into 15 years of HIp Hop experience. ?uestlove has never been one to shy away from telling a tale or two about encounters with people who we consider moguls in the game today. Here, he really brought the reader into his world and shows you the everything through his eyes. This is definitely a reason to put your boss on pause and get your read on!

Take some time and read the article HERE and enjoy as ?uestlove speaks on his early days, how he felt about the Chronic, getting cursed out by Puffy, working with Jay-z, the Soulquarians, MCA Records, and more...

Below are a few quotes that really made this a fast read.

"The Chronic represented everything that I hated about hip-hop as a fan, but then later represented everything that I stood for as a musician and engineer. In my head, I thought the Jungle Brothers' "Straight Out the Jungle" should be how hip-hop should sound: dirty, gritty, do-it-yourself. But The Chronic sounded clear."

"Jay's best trait is that he asks questions. He's not afraid to take advice. It's never been a brown-nosey thing with him. He hates that; never do you laugh at the boss' jokes when they're not funny. He's always willing to A-B it: Let's try A, let's try B, and let's even try C, and figure out which one works best. That approach is key to anyone's survival."

"Puffy was in my right peripheral, watching me going crazy the whole time. He was 14 deep with dudes dressed in all-black with black sunglasses. I literally went from, "God damn!" to "Oh, fuck." [laughs] I thought I was done."

"The Chronic was the blueprint for Ready to Die, which it clearly was. The Chronic was grandiose. Prior to that album, hip-hop records would have the token R&B song with a singer on it that was trying to get on the radio. But The Chronic was the first record where that aspect was now blown-out into an album, and the street songs were in the minority. I thought, "That's cheating, right?"

"The end of it was definitely the Chappelle's Block Party concert. Common and Erykah had broke up, and [director Michel] Gondry's coming to me like, "Ahmir, you must make them do a song together!" They didn't want to perform with each other."